hard drives partitions

[azpix]

Back in january, I put in some new hard drives on the pc. I made partition A for my programs and B For my files.

A is getting filled faster than I expected it to. is there a way to change the capacty of A without a complete wipe?

also, i wanted to add a particion C to be used as a scratch disk. can that be done without starting over?

thanks,

[TTk]

Win XP, Vista or Mac??

[hawkeye60]

I believe Partition Magic will allow you to do what you want.
http://www.symantec.com/norton/partitionmagic

[Mark1]

Useing the same physical dick for a scratch disk will not speed you up very much. In fact at times it will slow you down. The disk has only one set of heads that now have to cover 2 areas to make the computer operate. If you want a big scratch disk, I would install a second physical drive and use that. Then there is 2 sets of heads each running only one section.

You do not have to get a new 1 terrabyte drive. if you want, you can find say a 10 gig drive and use that. It probably will cost you only $20.

[Duncan Frenz]

I believe Partition Magic will allow you to do what you want.
http://www.symantec.com/norton/partitionmagic
There are other options, but even with my detailed instructions you would screw it up and somehow you would sue me for blowing your computer up. Partition Magic is one of the few utilities I would pay for, it works that well.

[Duncan Frenz]

Useing the same physical dick for a scratch disk will not speed you up very much. In fact at times it will slow you down. The disk has only one set of heads that now have to cover 2 areas to make the computer operate. If you want a big scratch disk, I would install a second physical drive and use that. Then there is 2 sets of heads each running only one section.

You do not have to get a new 1 terrabyte drive. if you want, you can find say a 10 gig drive and use that. It probably will cost you only $20.

Where you going to find a new 10GB drive??? I guarantee there aren't any SATA drives that small. I agree with your other advice however.

[azpix]

Win XP, Vista or Mac??

win xp

Useing the same physical dick for a scratch disk will not speed you up very much. In fact at times it will slow you down. The disk has only one set of heads that now have to cover 2 areas to make the computer operate. If you want a big scratch disk, I would install a second physical drive and use that. Then there is 2 sets of heads each running only one section.

You do not have to get a new 1 terrabyte drive. if you want, you can find say a 10 gig drive and use that. It probably will cost you only $20.


i'll have to bust open my case. I have 2 drives in there now set up as a raid mirror. I can't remember if there was space for a 3rd drive in there???

I suppose an external drive for a scratch disk wouldn't work?

[Mark1]

External drives will work, but you lose the speed advantage of a standalone scratch. However esata will work if you have it on your box. It is just as fast as an internal drive. the e is for external.

[Mark1]

Where you going to find a new 10GB drive??? I guarantee there aren't any SATA drives that small. I agree with your other advice however.


Nobody said they have to be SATA!

But you can find 80gig SATAs for about $30 bucks all day. Partition it to 4 gig for the scratch, and save the rest for storage/backup. Somethig that will not compete for service time.

[Duncan Frenz]

Nobody said they have to be SATA!

But you can find 80gig SATAs for about $30 bucks all day. Partition it to 4 gig for the scratch, and save the rest for storage/backup. Somethig that will not compete for service time.


I was just pointing out the futility of looking for a 10GB drive for $20 when other(better) options, such as the one you suggested, exist.;)

[Moppie]

Partition it to 4 gig for the scratch, and save the rest for storage/backup. Somethig that will not compete for service time.

Why bother partitioning it?

Just let photoshop use all of it, and remember not to fill it beyond about 60gb with other things.

[Mark1]

You want them seperate mainly for "seek time". If it has to search through 60 gig of info to find everything, or to look for places to put the info.... well there is no point in having it. But if you keep it empty, except for what photoshop uses, you get all the speed benifits. A 4 gig section will allow photoshop to do everything but gigapixel work. But it is small enough that it does not have to search for everything. And as it will never use all 80 gig, you might as well make use of it for yourself.

[basroil]

You want them seperate mainly for "seek time". If it has to search through 60 gig of info to find everything, or to look for places to put the info.... well there is no point in having it. But if you keep it empty, except for what photoshop uses, you get all the speed benifits. A 4 gig section will allow photoshop to do everything but gigapixel work. But it is small enough that it does not have to search for everything. And as it will never use all 80 gig, you might as well make use of it for yourself.

Looking at one file table or looking at two, I think 1 will win over two. Just let photoshop use all of it, since most of the scrap that gets written never actually gets reused, most just sits there as history information or old previews.

[hollis_f]

Acronis Disk Director - fantastic bit of software.

[DC Fan]

Consider EASEUS Partition Master, (http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm) which can revise partition settings.

[jm4ever]

I've had no problem partitioning XP using G-Parted

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

[azpix]

thanks all.

is there a way to tell if my pc can take another internal Hard drive without opening the box? it's kind of a PITA to get to my tower.

thanks again all

[MaxxuM]

1. Go into the BIOS (when computer starts up) and see if there are unactivated SATA or eSATA ports.

2. Look at the back of the computer and see if there are any eSATA ports (do a Google search to see what one looks like).

3. Go to your computer's maker site and look at the online manual.